“A day that I don’t learn something new is a wasted day.” – B.B. King

Lessons Learned in the Academy of Life

Lessons Learned, by Dan Fogelberg

Creativity is a gift from The Creator. What we choose to do with it is our freewill choice. We can create from love, light and truth, or we can create from selfishness, darkness and deception.

In a world ruled by illusion and deception, how do we discern what is Love and what is True?

Many so-called experts and celebrities in the limelight talk about having love for the world, particularly, for their supporters and fans. Musicians write songs about love and artists paint depictions of love.

Most people think they know what love is, but do they?

Love isn’t love if one only loves those who like them, agree with them, love them, support them, or even idolize them.

True Love loves when love isn’t returned.

True Love gives when it doesn’t receive.

I’ve learned that True Love isn’t a transaction. Nor is it a fleeting emotion and magnetic attraction. These things are beautiful parts of the human experience, but they boil down to neuroscience…biological and physiological chemical reactions.

True Love, however, is spiritual…supernatural.

True Love is a choice that ultimately manifests itself as surrender of oneself for the good of another and is always rooted firmly in the Truth.

This True Love (agape) is what Christ meant when He said to love one’s enemies. This kind of love is impossible without allowing Love Himself, the Creator of the universe, to intervene and break down our self-serving illusions of love.

At any moment, we’re given the choice and the grace to love. For over 40 years, I self-righteously chose to define love by my standards. My immature mind and rebellious heart led me down tangled pathways of disillusionment.

But thankfully, God lovingly had other plans. Instead of avoiding pain, He walked with me through it, and continues to lift, guide and mature me daily. Moreover, he’s taught me that unconditional, True Love is the most important, life-long learning journey anyone can undertake.

I’ve learned that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the author of True Love, is the ONLY cure for the painful wounds in broken hearts; the darkness lurking in the corners of our minds, and the vast emptiness in our spirits and souls.

All else is just temporary bandaging.